The Altay-class vessels were built for the USSR by the Finnish shipbuilding yard Rauma-Repola.

[1][2][3] In April 1993, while in reserve with the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, Yel'nya was taken over by Ukrainian dissidents.

The two ships, which were both approaching Suez, sustained light damage, according to the Russian Navy.

Kola, along with Stoikiy and around 350 other ships on both sides of the canal, were forced to wait for the Ever Given to be refloated.

[6] At the time of the incident, maritime tracking website vesselfinder.com temporarily misidentified Kola as Stoikiy (specifically "Russian Warship 545"); this was corrected on 25 March.